Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Tensions and contradictions in democratic participation in Latin America and Europe Tensões e contradições da participação democrática na América Latina e na EuropaThe debate surrounding the role and intensity of citizen participation in liberal democratic regimes has a long history.Since the end of the Second World War, this debate has intensified due to the need, felt by policymakers and scholars alike, to guarantee the stability of democratic regimes.Accordingly, advocates of limited participation -who argue that humans' individualistic nature would hinder the pursuit of the common good, which can only be safeguarded by legitimately elected representatives (Schumpeter, 1942) -have engaged in a rich dialogue with participatory democrats.The latter see opportunities to expand democracy beyond its institutionalised procedures by creating avenues for citizen involvement in public decision-making processes (Barber, 1984).Among participatory democrats, a substantive vision of democracy emerged in opposition to its reduction to a mere system of institutional arrangements.In the 1960s and 1970s, amid a renewed desire to participate in 'public affairs' -whether through electoral voting or direct democracy mechanisms such as petitions and referendums -self-organised civil society groups, along with workers' and students' movements, called for more robust forms of democracy (Pateman, 1970).Citizen participation, practised through both conventional and less conventional mechanisms, fuelled debate within the social sciences and bridged empirical concerns with the development of theoretical insights (Dalton, 2008).The concepts and principles underpinning citizen participation in decision-making processes today find their empirical grounding in 'living material', which allows for continuous renewal of the debate.The proliferation of new forms of dialogue and joint decision-making between democratic institutions and citizens gained traction throughout the 1980s and 1990s, bolstered by progressive and alter-globalist groups that placed Latin America at the forefront.In Brazil, local and supralocal experiments with participatory institutions and innovative social participation practices became
Source: Cadernos Metrópole
Authors: Roberto Falanga, João Ferrão
Institution: University of Lisbon
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4411094977